Overcome the BIG DREAD
After a break, it is natural to dread returning to a routine that involves work. Adults experience it and so do kids. It is a tough and stressful transition from summer to the school year. This transition can cause strain on the family. Parents should attempt to turn that stress into positive anticipation. Talk to your children about the aspects of school that will spark excitement. Remind your kids that they will soon become reacquainted with their school friends, and will make new friends. See if you can arrange a get together with friends for a fun activity before school begins. Encourage them to become involved in the kinds of extra-curricular activities they would enjoy; or remind them of the ones they already participate in. Make family plans for upcoming school holidays. Remind them of all of the things in and out of school that they should look forward to. Post a calendar where those events are in constant view for continual reminders. Get them comfortable once again with being in the school by taking them for a walk-around before classes begin. Speak to the school counselor and any teachers that might be present to re-establish rapport for yourself and for your child. Discussion with the counselor leads directly into the next piece of advice – get them organized.
Get Them Organized
Educators are consistent in their evaluation of academic failure. When asked why their students are not as successful as they could be, poor organization and ineffective time management are most often cited as the root causes.
Speak to the counselor about advice on organizing school materials. They will give very specific advice on the importance of organized binders, backpacks, and lockers. Great organization ahead of time minimizes stress during the school year. Take the students shopping with you when you purchase school supplies, then return to school to help them organize their lockers. Don’t forget the importance of using planners. Practice making entries with them, utilizing the school calendar, and teachers’ shared information on upcoming topics, assignments, tests, etc. Make sure to enter extra-curricular events, practices, and family activities as well. Our course entitled “Getting Organized and Managing Your Time” teaches students how to organize binders, lockers, and backpacks. Students will also learn how to manage their time using daily, monthly, and weekly calendars. We also provide instruction on leading a balanced lifestyle to optimize health, happiness, and effectiveness.
Set Goals
Sit down with your child and set some goals for the upcoming school year. Students use individualized strategies to complete tasks in school. It is vital to measure the effectiveness of your child’s strategy by setting goals and evaluating the results.
The only way to judge the ongoing effectiveness of your strategy is to evaluate your results. Success should always be measured as progress toward the accomplishment of goals.
Use several short term goals to accomplish a long term goal. For example: Long term goal: I will make a B in math this semester. Short term goals to accomplish long term goals:
“I will keep up with my homework every day.”
“I will ask the teacher for help every time a new concept is difficult to understand.”
“I will set aside at least three hours, over four days, to study for each test.”
Also make a list of possible obstacles that might arise while traveling down the path to success and goal accomplishments. Practice positive reactions to failure during the goal accomplishment process. Examples of positive reaction:
“What do I need to do to avoid these problems in the future?”
“How do I fix the issues I created for myself?”
“Sometimes things just don’t go as I planned, I’ll make sure it’s better tomorrow.”
Make sure the goals you and your children set are clear, achievable, measurable, pertinent, and self-controlled. We have a course available to teach students how to set and achieve goals in the quest for success.
Have Academic Assistance in Place
In order to determine the strategies that are best suited to your talents, you must go through a process of self-evaluation. The result will be an understanding of your individual strengths, and the strategies that best fit your individual learning styles.
You can probably anticipate the academic issues your child will experience. Practice self-evaluation with your child! Identify your child’s strengths and weakness and recall strategies that produced positive results last school year. Also identify strategies that produced negative results last school year in order to avoid experiencing the same problems. If you anticipate issues understanding content in Math, Science, English, etc., speak to the school counselor about tutoring opportunities. Get in touch with the teachers your student will have to see when they offer out-of-class assistance. Explain to them that you will be engaged with your child in the learning process and will assist them (the teacher) in any way you can. Most students can use support in the area of study skills like organization, time management, taking notes, reading books, preparing for tests, etc. There are a number of online resources you should become familiar with in this regard. We feel that the completion of our courses can greatly increase your child’s probability of success and reduce stress tremendously.
Take Us Higher Learning courses:
- Student Self-Evaluation
- Setting & Achieving Goals
- Getting Organized and Managing Your Time
- Improving Your Study Habits
- Reading and Taking Notes From Textbooks
- Taking Notes In Class
- Memory Strategies
- Preparing For and Taking Tests
*All of the block quotes in this blog are excerpts from Take Us Higher Learning courses.
Checkout our course library https://takeushigherlearning.com/course-list/
Good luck this upcoming school year. But if your child is prepared, you won’t need luck!